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China's Next Aircraft Carrier: Everything We Know (So Far)

Construction of China’s third aircraft carrier is well underway at the Jiangnan Changxingdao shipyard in Shanghai.

The massive vessel—dubbed the Type 002—is China’s first completely indigenous carrier design. The ship has been under construction since March 2015. According to the South China Morning Post, People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) commanderVice Adm. Shen Jinlong recently visited the shipyards to see the progress on the vessel’s construction for himself.

Not much is known about the Type 002 except that it is a departure from the Soviet-era Kuznetsov-class design that the PLAN has relied on until now. Both the Liaoning–originally the Soviet Navy’s Varyag—and the new Type 001A aircraft carrier—thought to be named Shandong—which is currently under construction at Dalian, are based on the original Soviet Kuznetsov design. Meanwhile, the new Type 002 is thought to dispense with the Russian ski-jump concept adopted from Kuznetsov and makes use instead of U.S. Navy-style steam catapults.